Harness motions



March 9, 1948. L. D. COBB HARNESS MdTIONS 2 Sheets-Sh9et-l Filed Jun 7,1945 INVENTOR.

- LELAND D. COB B BY 1 M FM , ATTORNEX March 9, 1948. L. D. COBB HARNESSMOTIONS Filed June 7, 1945' 2 Sheet-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. L ELANL; 0. C088ATTORNEX I be! against supporting brackets.

Patented Mar. 9, 1948 HARNESS MOTIONS Leland D. Cobb, Forestville, Conn,assignor to Draper Corporation, Hopedale, Mass, a corporation of MaineApplication June 7, 1945, Serial No. 598,062 4 Claims. (01. 139-79) Thepresent invention rel-ates generally to shedding mechanisms for loomsand, as illustrated herein, relates more particularly to the heretoforebeen necessary to provide a large number of sizes of harness cams, bothfor equipping new looms and for replacement purposes to adapt existinglooms to different weaving conditions. The investment in harness cams,accordingly, has necessarily been rather high and it has been proposedto provide a shedding mechanism wherein a plurality of warp openings ofdifferent widths are formed by the use of a single cam. The constructiondisclosed and claimed in the patent to Brown No. 2,042,422, granted May26, 1936, has successfully solved this problem. In this construction thefulcrum member comprises an elongated gear member meshing with teethformed on the various treadle members and adjustment of the elongatedgear member varies the fulcrum point and thus controls the extent of thewarp opening.

The above mentioned construction is satisfactory under practically allconditions of use but in some instances positive controlof the extent ofwarp opening is desired within very close limits and the aboveconstruction is unsatisfactory therefore because of lost motion betweenthe parts. This lost motion is a result, in part at least, of movementof the elongated gear member which consequently varies the fulcrumpoint.

It has been proposed to lock the elongated gear member in adjustedposition by the use of looking screws entering between the gear teethand thus preventing undesired angular movement thereof. This method oflocking the gear member was disclosed and claimed in U. S. Patent No.2,356,713, granted August 22, 1944, in the name of James M. Tuten. Thisconstruction securely locked the gear member in position but after aperiod of use the locking screw of the gear member would become worn,thus necessitating further adjustment and tightening of the lockingscrews.

One object of the present invention is to provide a construction wherebysaid lost motion will be substantially reduced under all conditions. Tothis end the elongated gear member is locked in adjusted position byclamping the gear mem- By loosening the clamping means, the elongatedgear member is ready for adjustment and, when the adjustment has beenmade, the clamping means is again tightened thus locking the elongatedgear member in position. The abutting contact surfaces occupy asubstantial area and, hence, wear is reduced to a minimum.

With the above and other objects and features in view, the inventionwill be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawingswhich illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which: I

Fig, 1 is a view, partly in section, of a portion of a loom in which thepresent invention is embodied; I

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of the clamping mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the mechanism shown in Fig, 1;

Fig. 4 is a view in section taken along the line IV-IV of Fig. 3; and hFig. 5 is a view in section taken along the line VV of Fig. 3.

The loom shown in the drawings, except for the shedding mechanism, is ofa conventional construction and, accordingly, is but fragment-arilyillustrated. The conventional right-hand loom side Ill is connected to aleft-hand loom side by a plurality of cross members, as by the crossgirt I 2. The front of the loom is at the right of Fig. 1 of thedrawing. The loom has a crank shaft l4, and a cam shaft l6 carrying aplurality of cams I8.

The present construction includes the usual arrangement of harnessframes 20 which extend substantially vertically and widthwise of theloom and are arranged to be reciprocated vertically by the cams l8 andharness treadles 22 positioned below the harness frames. In the drawingsonly one harnes is shown but a plurality of such harnesses are obviouslynecessary. These harnesses are positioned parallel to each other. Theharness treadles 22 are positioned parallel to each other and extendrearwardly from the general plane of the collection of harness frames20. The forward end of each treadle 22 is connected to a harness frameby any usual means, such, for example, as a harness strap 24.

The rotating harness cams I 8 are located above the treadles 22 andintermediate the ends thereof. Each cam l8 depresses its associatedtreadle 22 through engagement with a roller 26 carried by the treadle.The harness treadles are fulcrumed at their rearward ends and depressionof a treadle 22 results in the connected harness frame being depressedand which corresponds to 3 the throw of the forward end of the treadle.The harness is returned to its initial position by any usual type of topmotion such as disclosed, for example, in the patent to Bell, No.1,580,948, granted April 13, 1926. r

The fulcrum for the treadle comprises an elongated gear member 23 havingteeth 30 extending transversely of the treadle and meshing with rackteeth 32 formed on the treadle 22. The gear member 28 is sufficientlyelongated to engage and support all of the harness treadles used on aloom, The treadles rock on the gear member which, as will later bedescribed, is normally held in fixed position. The gear member 28 may beshifted longitudinally of the treadles without shifting the treadles tovary the fulcrum point and thus simultaneously and equally vary thethrow of the treadles. Thus the size or extent of the warp opening maybe widely varied without changing the harness cams.

The elongated gear member 28 is aldjustably supported in brackets 35which are bolted to middle girts it. The brackets 35 and 35 aresubstantially identical except that they are right and left hand and,hence, it will be necessary to describe only one of the brackets. Thebracket 34 is provided with a rack 52 having teeth his which mesh withthe teeth to on the elongated gear member 8. When the gear member 23 isrotated with the teeth 39 'in mesh with the teeth Q4 on the rack 12, themember 23 will move bodily forwardly r rearwardly relatively to thebrackets 3d and 35. The gear member 28 at each end is provided with anopening through which a bolt d6 passes, the bolts db forming the axisabout which the gear member 28 rotates. The bolt it extends through asupporting member &8 having a laterally extending portion 58 fittinginto a slot 52 formed in the bracket 34. rectangular in transversesection and, hence, will not rock in the slot 52. The supporting member48 is provided with a forwardly extending sllbstantially horizontal arm53 having ai longitudinal slot 56 at its forward end portion. A bolt 58passes through a hole in the bracket 34 and through the slot 555. ened,the member 48 is locked in adjusted position.

In the use of the above construction, the clon gated gear member 28 maybe quickly and easily adjusted to provide for various sizes of shedopenings and locked in adjusted position. The bolts 58 on each end ofelongated gear member 28 are loosened. The bolts which look thesupporting members 23 in adjusted position are also loosened, thuspermitting rotation of the elongated gear member 28 forwardly orrealwardly, as desired. Ihe harness treadles are normally restrainedfrom longitudinal movement and hence when the elongated gear member 28is rocked, the fulcrum point of the harness treadles 22 is varied. Whenthe gear member has been moved to the desired location the bolts 36 and58 are tightened to lock the gear memberlit firmly in adjusted position.The bolts it? firmly clamp the elongated gear member 23 to thesupporting members it and since there is a substantial area of contactbetween the contacting surfaces wear is reduced to a minimum. Forwardand rearward movement which would be permitted by the necessary backlash between the gear teeth and M is effectively prevented by the bolts58 which clamp the supporting member E l to the supporting brackets 36and 35.

l-laving thus described my invention, what I Iii/hen the nut 6distight-' The portion 55 is 4 claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a loom, a harness frame, a harness treadle connected with saidframe for operating the latter, a cam for operating the treadle, a gearmember on which said treadle is fulcrumed, said gear member having gearteeth extending transversely of said treadle and meshing with gear teethformed thereon, support means at each end of the gear member supportingthe gear member for rolling movement longitudinally of said treadle toadjust the fulcrum point of the treadle, said support means includingadjustable relatively fixed structure and means frictionally lockingsaid gear member to said fixed structure.

2. In a loom, a harness frame, a harness treadle connected with saidframe for operating the latter, a cam for operating the treadle, a gearmember on which said treadle is fulcrumed, said gear member having gearteeth extending transversely of said treadle and meshing with gear teethformed thereon, individual support structures one at each end of saidgear member supporting the gear member for rolling movementlongitudinally of said treadle to adjust the fulcrum point of thetreadle, each of said support structures comprising an adjustablerelatively stationary part and means frictionally looking said gear tosaid stationary part.

3. In a loo-m, a harness frame, a. harness treadle connected to theframe for operating the latter, a cam for operating the treadle, a gearmember on which the treadle is fulcrumed, said gear member having gearteeth extending transtreadle connected to the frame for operating thelatter, a cam for operating the treadle, a gear member on which thetreadle is fulcrumed, said gear member having gear teeth extendingtransversely of said treadle and meshing with rack teeth formed on saidtreadle, said gear member having plane parallel end portions, movablemeans for supporting the gear member for rolling movement longitudinallyof the treadle toadjust the fulcrum point of the treadle, stationarybrackets in which said movable supporting means are slidably mounted,said movable means comprising support members and bolts, each of saidbolts extending through one of said end portions and through one of saidmovable supporting 'members for locking the gear member against rotationin adjusted position, and means for locking said movable supportingmembers in position on said stationary brackets.

LELAND D. COBB.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,042,422 Brown May 26, 19362,356,713 Tuten Aug. 22, 1944

